Backing up your PC

Backups are not optional! You should not rely on a single hard disk to protect your valuable data. The cost of removable media is now very low - such media include:

CDs
DVDs
USB flash drives
USB hard drives

Hard Disks

The life of the average consumer hard disk should not be assumed to be greater than 3 years. I have had hard disks abruptly fail whilst a PC is operating. It is possible to interrogate the SMART data on modern hard disks, but the data is difficult to interpret and still doesn't guarantee that you will detect a disk in your PC that is about to fail. Many modern PC chipsets allow you to mirror the hard disks (RAID 1). This means you install two disks of equal capacity, and the data is stored on both disks. Should one disk fail you should be able to continue operating on the other disk without losing any data. However, this doesn't protect you viruses, spyware, motherboard failure, or having your PC stolen. RAID disks improve your data integrity, but I recommend using removable media.

Removable Media

Removable media allows you to have multiple copies of your valuable data at multiple locations. You can store one or more copies in your house, and one or more copies at a remote location (at work, a friends house, etc.). If the data is confidential you may want to store the media in a locked cupboard or encrypted. Removable media is also not 100% dependable.

Do not use CD-RW or DVD-RW media for long term data storage. This type of media is not reliable. DVD-RAM is the better choice if you must use rewriteable media.
As CD-R, and DVD+R or DVD-R media are under $1 each you should have no hesitation in making regular backups to write-once media. For example, make a full copy of all your data to one (or more) DVD-R media once a month. Write the date on the media and store them in the cupboard. That is $12 a year. If you do subsequently discover that one of the media is faulty, chances are that the same data is on earlier backups.
USB memory sticks or hard drives are okay for quick backups, but cannot be relied on. Pulling out at USB stick without properly disconnecting it can result in the drive becoming unreadable, and needing to be reformatted. USB hard drives can be dropped adn damaged. Fine for temporary backups but I recommend CD-R or DVD-R in addition.

Partitioning your Disk

It is a good idea to partition your hard disk to separate your data from the Operating System. For example, if you put all your personal data on your D: drive it is easy to configure your backup software to back up everything on your D: drive. If you use a number of directories on your C: drive you have to make sure you that you have identified and backed up all your data. If you have to reformat the C: drive and reinstall your operating system you may find that you forget to back up some of your personal data. However, there will still be some data on your C: drive unless you take special measures to back them up. These include:

Browser favourites. IE puts these into C:\documents and settings\username\favourites. Firefox uses C:\documents and settings\username\application data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profilename\bookmarks.html. These default locations can be moved to your D: drive but it isn't easy to do (Google for instructions).
Mailboxes. Outlook Express and Thunderbird both store the mail files by default in the c:\documents and settings folder. I highly recommend moving these to your D: drive so you back up all your mail when you do a D: drive backup. This is easier to do - use Google to get step-by-step instructions on how to do this.
Personal address book. Outlook Express and Thunderbird again store the personal address book in c:\documents and settings. This is again data that most people would miss if the c: drive was reformatted, and I recommend moving to D: drive.

I keep my personal data such as Word Processing, Excel files, letters, etc. in a directory on my D: drive. All my personal data going back 10 years easily fits onto 1 DVD. I save my photos onto another set of DVDs. Other files such as MP3, downloaded videos, software, etc. are easily backed up onto other DVDs, and are less important if not backed up (as they can often be downloaded from the internet again). A simple backup scheme can be worked out for your data.

Backing up the Operating System

So you have your personal data backed up, but if your operating system is affected by a virus and you need to reformat and reinstall, this can be a very time-consuming operation. It would take me many days to restore my system to how it is now. So what I do is create another hard disk partition, my E: drive, and use Acronis TrueImage to create an image of my entire C: drive. This is a large file (though smaller than the size of the C: drive as there is compression applied and some large files such as the swap file do not need to be backed up), but the backup only takes 5 - 10 minutes. If I need to restore, I can restore the entire C: drive to the point at which the backup was taken in about 10 minutes. This method works well if you store all your personal data on D:, as the contents of C: will not change much. You do need to boot up off a rescue disk in order to do a restore, and you should verify the images you create on E: (or if you store them on removable media such as one or more DVDs). If there is an error on your backup media you won't be able to restore, and you won't have any operating system at all!

There are several tools that make full image backups, including Acronis TrueImage and Norton Ghost. These are not tools for absolute beginners, but if correctly used they can get you up and running again in 10 - 15 minutes instead of 5 days. You can also use these tools for backing up your D: drive data.

Summary

C:	20 - 30 GB	Operating system. Don't store any personal data here, just the operating system so that if you need to reformat and restore you don't lose any personal data.
D:	xx GB	Personal data. By splitting your data from your operating system it is easier to identify data for backing up, and if you need to restore your operating system (using the image on the E: drive), C: can be wiped and restored without affecting your personal data on D:.
E:	20 - 30 GB	Use for storing images of the operating system that you create using Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost. Your first backup can be a full backup, then incrementals.